Avatar: The Last Airbender Reveals a New Style of Bending
Avatar: The Last Airbender raised many questions during its run, and Toph was the source of many [...]
Avatar: The Last Airbender raised many questions during its run, and Toph was the source of many of them. After all, the prodigal earthbender shocked fans when she created a new form of bending with metalbending, and Katara went on to learn a subsection of waterbending when she learned to manipulate blood. These emerging bending styles made fans question what else was possible for benders to manipulate, and it turns out Kyoshi has confirmed one theorized style is possible.
The information came with the most recent book about Avatar Kyoshi. Avatar: The Shadow of Kyoshi features plenty of information about the infamous warrior as she faced threat after threat. This second book followed Kyoshi as she faces a fighter who was once believed to be the Avatar, and one fight leading up to their showdown witnessed Kyoshi glassbend.
And yes, you read that right. Avatar Kyoshi was able to use earthbending to manipulate glass, so you can bet Toph is jealous of the heroine's insane strength.
One line in the novel confirms Kyoshi could manipulate glass when bending. It reads, "The shards of glass in her skin plucked themselves out under the force of her earthbending." The quick line might be easy to look over, but it is the first canon evidence that glassbending can be done by earthbenders seeing as they can already manipulate sand. Glass is a natural progression for those benders, but new questions have arisen from this discovery.
After all, if glassbending is possible, fans are curious why it was never mentioned in Avatar: The Last Airbender or even The Legend of Korra. It might be a technique that only Kyoshi was capable of doing, but if Toph were to try glassbending, we are sure she could do it. The revelation of glassbending has only added to the lore of Avatar, and it has raised questions about what other kinds of bending could be lurking out there.
So, what do you make of this revelation? What other bending styles do you believe exist? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!